From the famous springlock scene to the Josh Hutcherson thirst seen on social media, the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie was a wild ride through and through.
With many beloved books and video games getting their own movie adaptations, it only seems fitting that Five Nights at Freddy’s gets its turn on the big screen. In case you don’t know what that is (meaning you are not in Gen Z), Five Nights at Freddy’s is a classic horror game that originally came out on August 8, 2014. The game was produced by Scott Cawthon who, despite doing game development for years, had little success until the release of Five Nights at Freddy’s. He was inspired to make this shocking horror game because of a previous game he had produced, Chipper & Sons Lumber Co., which was criticized for its characters looking like “scary animatronic animals.” These animatronics sparked his idea for the beloved Freddy Fazbear and his robotic crew. What Cawthon didn’t realize was that the game would boom in popularity almost immediately upon its release, with famous YouTubers like Jacksepticeye and Markiplier hopping on the bandwagon shortly after the game’s release.
Even to this day, Five Nights at Freddy’s is one of Markiplier’s most popular “Let’s Play” videos, with over 114 million views as of November 2023. The entire Five Nights at Freddy’s series, even including his replays of the game from recently, is his overall most popular series.
The fanbase has awaited this movie adaptation for almost 10 years, some even making their own animations and productions involving various characters and elements from the games and the books. Various fan-made songs have been released over the years, along with animations of the characters to accompany the music.
Rumors of a movie started around 2017, but due to various issues it took many years to adapt this franchise into a proper movie. Many fans began to accept the idea that they would never see a movie for the beloved horror game, but were delighted by the release of the movie this year. Many people even consider the release to have perfect timing, as many original fans are turning 18-20 this year and they believe it is a proper way to wave goodbye to a childhood favorite.
Fans initially thought the movie would be full of gore due to teasers for the movie, spoiled scenes, and the reveal of the cast. It is a Blumhouse production after all- and the games themselves did not hold back on its gore implications. A lot of people were also hoping for the beloved spring lock scene, which did feature in the movie. Many fans also theorized that more YouTubers would be in the movie in some way, but the movie only included Mat Pat and CoryxKenshin, as well as others on the employee’s board.
The movie also led to an abundance of edits- mostly of Josh Hutcherson, who played the main character Mike Schmidt.
To find out our student’s opinion on the movie, a survey was sent out asking about both overall opinion of the film and specific favorite moments. As for favorite parts of the movie, survey responses included: lots of Josh Hutcherson, who was mentioned in 11 responses, with nearly all of them saying he is hot. One response did say he has an amazing acting range, as shown in the film, and for that normal response… thank you.
Other favorite parts of the movie were reported to be Steve Raglan/WIlliam Afton (Matthew Lillard). Once again, the amount of responses saying he was hot made it apparent what this generation finds important in films. The least reported favorite part was the springlock scene standing at 3 responses. The spring lock scene was originally shown in Five Nights at Freddy’s 3, in the final end-of-night minigame, where Afton tries to hide in the Spring Bonnie suit to escape the vengeful spirits of his young victims.
As for their least favorite parts, many people believed that the movie wasn’t scary or game accurate. The film was produced by Blumhouse and Scott Cawthon himself, and it could’ve been better and ‘more gore-y’, despite its PG-13 rating.
There were also complaints about Markiplier not being in the movie, however he explained on a livestream that, despite an invitation to appear in Five Nights at Freddy’s, his own movie production of Iron Lung interfered with the production schedule. There were few other complaints, some about Carl, the cupcake, getting a majority of the kills due to the history of the cupcake in game. The other scene respondents mentioned was the scene in which the animatronics (Freddy, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy) built a blanket/pillow fort with Abby (Piper Rubio), Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), and Mike. There was also one singular report of Balloon Boy being the “scariest part of the movie.”
Overall, the movie was a hit or miss with fans of all ages, some loving it and others not so much. Many people considered it an end to their childhood, while others were proud of the movie release. Scott Cawthon himself said this movie was beyond his wildest dreams to make, after years of failed games and production it was a shock to see a simple horror game project turn into a long-awaited movie. There is a confirmed 3-movie contract deal for this franchise though, so expect a FNaF 2 movie on the rise coming soon!
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